Space Fowl
by TheFrozenMunk
Summary: What if Artemis Fowl had been born during the war with the Formics and gone to space? Written as if it could have actually taken place with no change to "Ender's Game". I own nothing.
1. Chapter 1

**I own no characters organizations, etc.**

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**Chapter One**

Artemis sat complacently on the warm leather of the Limo, he stared out the window watching the scenery go by. 'Might as well give them nothing to see if the bastards are going to look through my eyes, he thought to himself as the car drove past a cow. These were not the usual thoughts of a six year old, but then again Artemis Fowl II was no average Irish six year old. He had been bred for brilliance since he was still in diapers, by the age of three he had mastered Common, French, and Russian. Now at the age of six he had added Italian, German, and Hebrew to his dialects. His skin was a chalk white, bleached from hours spent indoors in front of a desk screen. His hair gave little more color to his face as he had recently taken to bleaching his dark hair in hopes that it would seem rebellious. Combined with his small black suit the only color on this small child was the piercing blue eyes that stared out his window.

Though his blue eyes looked through the glass of the window his mind was on the small box attached firmly to the back of his neck, he felt like he could feel the invisible hooks probing through his mind. To see if he wasgood enough, if he was smart enough to go into space, if the human race needed him or if he was just some more trash. After one unusually large bump in the road Artemis shouted at the driver to watch where he was going. "There is no need to get wound up sir, we are only going for a routine check-up" a Large Eurasian man spoke from the across the limo.

"I am not 'Wound up', Butler. Annoyed, exasperated, perturbed, or irked may describe my mood but definitely not 'Wound up'." Artemis stared at the bodyguard waiting for a response but Butler simply stared back blankly, so the young man started in again "No Butler what I am is Vexed, I have had this box on the back of my head for three years with them spying through my eyes. Who do they think they are to use Artemis Fowl II this way?"

"Well they are the I.F. Artemis"

"Oh yes the International Federation all floating around in space with their big ships like gods over us little bugs on earth." Artemis had intended his statement to be funny, in fact he had planned out the entire conversation beforehand just so he could make this joke. Butler however had no sense of humor and did not even crack a smile. Or perhaps it is I with no sense of Humor Artemis thought to himself. With a sigh Artemis turned back to the window, they were just entering Dublin and would soon be at their destination.

The I.F. Headquarters in Dublin left something to be desired from the governing force of the world. Not enough grandeur, just a simple office building. Artemis decided if he were running the place he would at the very least have a big sign out front, if not models of some of the spaceships in the comet field. The architecture also would be more menacing perhaps Chinese, mid 11th century. They knew how to make a castle look menacing back then. Now it was all Designer waterfalls and curved roofs.

Butler palmed their way into the building, Artemis himself tried to use identification as little as possible, a force of habit instilled in him at a young age by his father. Artemis could remember it perfectly; his father sitting in a high-backed easy chair, Artemis standing on his stone in front of the fireplace "Remember Artemis in this world people with our lifestyle only live as long as our conspicuousness." Artemis would nod to his father, his mother would walk into the room calling for Arty...

"We are ready to see you now" A nurse standing next to where Butler and Artemis were sitting interrupted Artemis' line of thought. He glanced over at her, she was middle-aged, possibly 27 he decided, Asian descent, she was wearing a blue uniform with the I.F. insignia stamped on her breast. Artemis nodded to her and stood along with Butler. "So Artemis, we'll be taking your monitor off today okay? We will just need to run a few test first."

"What sort of tests?" Artemis inquired keeping his eyes forward as they walked down the hallway.

"Some questions and a multiple choice questionnaire. Nothing to be frightened of cutie." she smiled at him and gave him a wink. Artemis did not return the smile, he despised adults who treated him like a child.

Within a few minutes Artemis was seated in front of an interviewer responding to seemingly random questions, some of them seemed to make sense and Artemis would begin to think he understood what they wanted to know about him, but then a seemingly random question would mess up his suspicions. Then one question caught Artemis completely off guard "Do you want to go to Battle School, Artemis?"

For a few moments Artemis was stunned to silence with the direct question, then he took a breath and collected his thoughts. "I... I am not sure..." The interviewer raised an eyebrow and motioned for Artemis to continue. Artemis frowned "I don't know okay?!" Artemis was angry, he had thought he was vexed before. He was wrong, this was anger. He had exposed himself in front of the opposition, in front of the enemy he had appeared weak, why? What about this question made him so distressed? Did he want to go? He honestly didn't know. Artemis looked back up at the interviewer to see him writing on his notepad, he felt ashamed, they were getting to him and he was helping them. He silently vowed that no one would ever see him so weak again, he would never be exposed again.

Artemis calmed himself by taking a few slow breaths, and waited for the interviewer to ask the next question. However, instead of talking the interviewer took out a piece of paper and a pencil, the test had begun. Of course they would give him the test after flustering him, they hoped to catch him off guard, to reveal the person he truly was. Artemis himself wasn't sure what kind of person he was, but he knew what kind of person they wanted him to be and if they wanted to play their games with him... he would not stand for it.

**END CHAPTER**


	2. Chapter 2

**I own no characters organizations, etc.**

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**Chapter 2**

"He is a megalomaniac and a rebel sir. there is no way we can possibly control him, just look at this test he did! A complete psychopath in a bottle he is."

"He rigged the test, didn't you notice how he read all the questions before answering any of them? He knew what we were looking for and refused to give it to us. He is a smart one, and besides I don't want to control him just focus him, give him a target."

"But sir, doesn't he remind you a bit of... the Wiggin?"

"Of course he does but Peter Wiggin was bursting with anger and hate, this boy just wants everyone to think he is like that. He may have the softer side that we need."

"But are you sure that he is faking all of this sir? I mean he even bleached his hair."

"And what kind of a six year old wants to do that neh? hahaha, just look through the vids we got from the box. Every time he looks in a mirror and sees that hair of his he gets disgusted. No Anderson he is as sane as you or... well as sane as you anyway."

"Not sure of your own sanity sir?"

"Anderson, I honestly don't believe you can do this job and keep your sanity, now bring him in."

"If you say so sir."

"I do say so, look the next Wiggin won't be ready for another six more years and if he doesn't pan out I'll need someone to take over. Bring him in."

The first thing that Artemis did when he got home was to go up to the library to see his father, he Knocked softly before coming in and had Butler wait outside. His father was sitting in his usual spot facing the fireplace, so Artemis went and stood on his stone in front of his father. He held very still not moving, waiting for his father to finish and turn his attention to Artemis. Finally his father closed his book and looked up towards Artemis, folding his hands in his lap he waited intently. "Sir" Artemis began "The check up in Dublin went well and they decided it was time to remove my box and end surveillance of our family."

Artemis Fowl Senior nodded his head and stood up "Artemis, just because they no longer have a box on your head does not mean that we are not under surveillance, I have heard of many cases where the testing continues on even after the box has been removed" His father sighed "Artemis as you know our family has been vested in many lucrative transactions with... questionable morals. Since that box has been placed upon your head many of these ventures have fallen through because we could never really be sure what went back to the government. So at this juncture I feel that..." Here it comes Artemis thought "it would not be in our best interest to immerse you in the family business quite yet." Artemis was crestfallen, he knew it was coming but to actually hear it from his father was quite another thing. He had constantly striven for his fathers approval but since the I.F. had come into their lives his father had only seen him as a spy.

"I understand sir" Artemis uttered, being sure that his disappointment didn't show in his voice "Am i excused?" In response his father opened his book and began reading again. Artemis quietly exited the room to find Butler and his mother waiting for him. 'Butler must have gotten her' He realized "Hello Mother he smiled to her.

Angeline Fowl's eyes teared up and she held her son "I got my little boy back, they didn't take you away" She rubbed the back of his neck where the box had been and cried into his shoulder. Artemis put his arms around her shaking shoulders, an odd sight to see a six year old comforting his mother he thought to himself. Yes mother I am not going anywhere, I failed all their tests, of course you should be soooo happy. Your son wasn't good enough to go to the heavens.

Butler went to answer a knock at the door as Artemis and his mother talked. "He won't let me in mother" He didn't have to say that he was talking about father, mother already knew. "He just doesn't trust me, he thinks I am a spy. He'll never trust me I think."

Angeline looked pained for a few seconds as she tried to come up with the right words to comfort him. "Artemis your father has always been into his work, in many ways it is his life." Artemis nodded that he understood "Artemis your father loves..."

Angeline's words were cut short by a cough from Butler "Sorry to excuse you, but i believe that you ought to come to the door." Angeline looked up at Butler confused and a little upset. "I'll get Mr. Fowl" Butler continued. At this Angeline's eyes widened slightly, if it was so important as to require both her and her husband t couldn't be good. Angeline got up and went downstairs while Artemis waited for Butler and his father. It took only a few moments for Artemis Fowl Senior to emerge from the library with Butler in tow, Artemis walked quickly beside his father to keep up. As they approached the front door Artemis was surprised to see several men in the I.F. Military dress.

"What is this all about?" Artemis's Father demanded

The man seemingly in charge stepped forward and spoke "Mr. Fowl my name is Lieutenant James H. Aimes and I have been sent from I.F. Internal command to inform you that your son Artemis Fowl the second has been accepted into battle school should he accept the invitation.

"Invitation?" Mr Fowl began "You mean it is optional? I was under the impression that you could just take him from us."

"That is correct sir, you have no choice in this matter. Only your son can choose whether or not he wishes to serve his species."

Artemis was curious "Do many of the children decline the invitation Lieutenant Aimes?"

Aimes looked towards Artemis "No sir, very few will decline the opportunity to go into space."

Artemis frowned "Why did you call me sir, Lieutenant? Isn't your station above mine own?"

Aimes continued to look at Artemis "Only if you decline sir, however going to Battle school will guarantee that your Authority shall be above my own." Artemis nodded to himself and looked over at Butler, who's usual blank expression gave no indication of his thoughts.

"Well of course he isn't going" Angeline started, she would have continued had Artemis Fowl Senior not held up his hand to stop her. She looked at him for a few seconds and then walked over to stand beside him, gripping his hand tightly. Artemis looked up at his mother, and then over to his father, he didn't know what to do.

After staring at his father for a few moments his father spoke "Go Artemis" His mother began crying in his fathers shoulder as all the eyes in the room turned to his father.

Artemis held his fathers gaze for a few moments and then nodded, turning back to the Officers he nodded again "I will go."

Lieutenant Aimes nodded "Now the shuttle doesn't leave for another week and you will not have leave from battle school until you are twelve, would you like to spend the next few days with your family or come with us now?"

Artemis took only a quick glance around before deciding "No, it would be best if I came now. Do I need to bring anything?"

"No sir."

Artemis nodded "Then lets go" he walked towards Aimes and out the front door of the Fowl Mansion.

Waiting for the shuttle was fairly eventful for Artemis, he stayed in a military bunker with a couple other soldiers as it was the only space available, he quickly learned to get rid of his Armani suit in exchange for some shorts and a t-shirt once he found that six year olds in suit were a prime target among the men. He attended a few classes with the men he was bunking with, some inside such as the dangers of space travel, but many outside. He decided to try to soak up as much sun as he could before going into space. Lieutenant Aimes even allowed him to attend the firing range, they would only allow him to handle a small pistol but considering he had never shot a gun before that was a kindness in itself. He wasn't expecting the kickback from the gun the first time and ended up missing his target by some distance to the mirth of the soldiers he was with. He learned quickly though how to tense his wrist as he pulled the trigger and aim down the barrel of his gun and was managing to hit his target by the end of the session. He wasn't a great shot, but for a six year old with weak wrists he figured he wasn't half bad. After the shooting practice was done the men invited Artemis to come with them to an obstacle course, Artemis had never been on an obstacle course but thought that it might be entertaining so agreed to come along. Some of the obstacles Artemis could do even better than the men like crawling under the wire, but there were some that Artemis couldn't do at all such as climbing over the wall or up the rope. He realized that his years inside had weakened his body significantly and he had to wonder whether or not a regular six year old could have climbed the rope. He came to the conclusion that a balance was needed in order for one to become a soldier, and like it or not that was the course he was on. For the zip-line he had to be lifted by the men in order to reach the handle. He was instructed how to hold the handle and how to stop with his feet at the other end, when he felt comfortable he was released and he began his descent along the line. The experience was exhilarating flying through the air like he was, as he was nearing the end Artemis glanced over at the fence and spotted a large bald individual that looked very much like Butler. However before he could be certain he slammed into the padded post at the end of the zip-line, losing his grip he fell onto the grass and was quickly surrounded by men who helped him to his feet and asked him repeatedly if he was alright. By the time Artemis had assured them all that he was fine and got another look at the fence the man who looked like Butler was gone.

As Artemis was lying in bed that night muscles all over his body, some that he hadn't even known existed, ached with the damage he had done to them today. Artemis however felt... happy? no... satisfied he decided, sure his muscles hurt a little but he felt like it was a badge given to him for his good work that day. He had already decided to do his best in this new life of his, and would do what was necessary to succeed at it. A moment passed when Artemis thought of his mother but he quickly pushed the emotion that flooded him out of his mind and gently fell asleep on the firm mattress. That night Artemis dreamed of the man who looked like Butler. In his dream it was Butler, he had come to take Artemis home and when Artemis hit the post and fell Butler climbed over the fence and walked over to Artemis. He helped Artemis up and held his hand as he explained to Artemis how they could go home, how the formics had all been destroyed and that Artemis' father had sent Butler to come get him. Artemis didn't respond he just stared up at Butler feeling nothing for a while. Then he said the only thing that came to mind "Butler, where are your sunglasses?" Artemis awoke to the sounds of the morning wake-up system. He was drenched in a cold sweat, which was unusual because he was never afraid in his dream. Perhaps he had a nightmare after the first dream and he couldn't remember it? It hardly mattered he decided.

Over the course of the week Artemis focused mainly on training with the other men, he even tried going to the gym once but after finding that the machines were all built for adult bodies he soon gave up. He was very proud of his aim by the end of the week and could hit the bulls-eye seven times out of ten if he took his time to aim. He would also go on the zip-line as often as he could find men willing to help him reach the handle, he never saw the man who looked like Butler again in his dreams or in life.

Artemis didn't exercise with the men the day before the launch, he wasn't allowed to eat and was sure that exercising would make him hungry. He did however say goodbye to Lieutenant Aimes and the men before he went to sleep that night, he wouldn't see them again tomorrow. For the launch they gave him a space suit that felt kind of baggy on him, he was used to suits that squeezed his ribs instead. Many of the other boys also found the suits baggy judging by the way they kept jokingly pulling out the waistline and pretending to be obese, Artemis didn't find it funny like the other boys.

They were all seated and shown how to buckle themselves into the chairs, once that was done a movie played on the screen explaining the history of the formics and the purpose of the battle school. Artemis lost interest quickly and observed the boys around him instead, many of the boys also lost interest and only a few stayed focused on the screen. Artemis spotted one boy with brown hair and thin eyes that was mouthing the words as the movie said them, he was doing it with a slight grin. Artemis wondered how he had already memorized the movie, surely they wouldn't show it in school, though as he attended a private school he wouldn't actually know.

The video was soon over and Artemis got excited, he wondered if taking off in the space shuttle would be anything like flying on a zip-line. He didn't have to wait long to find out, the count down started and the engines ignited pushing the craft upwards. No, it was not like a zip-line, in fact it was more like slamming into the pole at the end of the zip-line provided that the pole had no padding on it.. Artemis felt like his stomach was being pushed into the seat behind him, he had known about G-forces from his studies but experiencing them like this was quite another thing. In only a few moments though they pushed through the atmosphere and were in space, Artemis suddenly felt light, very light.

The captain informed everyone that they could now unhook their seat belts if they wanted to experience no gravity. Artemis watched as a few other boys and one girl did just that. So he unhooked and gently pushed off his seat, he immediately flew towards the roof much faster than he expected. He slammed into the roof and bounced towards the window, where he managed to grab a handhold and steady himself. Most of the other boys were out of their seats and bouncing around as well now and Artemis paused to watch them fly in intricate patterns through the room. He wondered if he could push off and fly through the cabin without hitting any of the other boys. After a few moments of observation he decided it was possible, he just had to time it correctly. 1... 2... 3... 4... there it was a hole. Now just watch them as they bounce off the walls... here it comes... Now! Artemis shoved off the wall and flew across the shuttle narrowly missing boys as he zoomed through the hole he spotted. But wait, the girl in the shuttle was moving towards him, she was closer than he had calculated she would be, he wasn't going to make it! Artemis crashed into the girl, flailing arms grabbed onto each other as they spun at an angle. They crashed into a wall and Artemis managed to grab onto a rail to steady both of them.

The girl just kept on apologizing and asking if he was alright, Artemis wasn't really listening to her though. He was trying to figure out what went wrong, he was sure he would make it through. "That..." Artemis spoke cutting the girl off "...was so fun! Did you see me?" He asked looking towards her "Ah, it was like I was flying. I was so sure I would make it through too... I wonder what went wrong?" He looked about the room again just as the captains voice came back on informing them that they would be docking soon and should return to their seats.

"Well I am glad your okay then..." The girl replied sarcastically as she pushed off back to her seat. Artemis watched her go wondering what he had said to offend her. Doesn't really matter he thought to himself then pushed back to his own seat.

**END CHAPTER**


	3. Chapter 3

I own no characters organizations, etc.

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Chapter Three

"Now what did I tell you Anderson? Does that look like a psychopath to you?"

"I do admit sir, seeing him smile is a little... shocking."

"He does smile like a vampire doesn't he?"

"Actually sir I meant that I was expecting him to be a little more cold and calculating than he was. Perhaps that time with the Marines down on earth changed him a little?"

"Oh he is calculating Anderson, but cold? No and why should he be? He is only six and it's not like his father has been kidnapped by the Russian Mafia or anything."

"Was that a chuckle sir? Are you attempting at humor?"

"Never mind Anderson, I forgot that you were a robot."

"More humor sir? What has gotten you in such a good mood?"

"Oh I don't know, just something about corrupting little boys always seems to make me smile, or perhaps its this one in particular..."

"Hmph. Well Graff we have your tool up here, what are we going to do now?"

"Sharpen him of course, bring out his genius and make him into a fine arrowhead, then we'll see if we want him at the head of our fleet"

"I hope he is the one, we are running out of time. So how are you going to go about bringing out his genius?"

"Isolation is the key, if he is isolated he will be forced to adapt on his own. I have already sent orders to start isolating him from the other launchies, his superior attitude will do the rest."

"Already sir? Why don't you just start on the shuttle ride up?"

"You know what Anderson? That is a good idea, I think I will try that next time..."

When all the children arrived they were shown to a door through which they found someone waiting for them in the room, it was an older boy, he waited for them all to arrive in the room before he held up his hand to silence them. "Hello Boys..." The boy started to say but was interrupted by a cough "Oh, we have a girl launchie in this group neh? You'll find that girls are uncommon up here in Battle School." He focused back upon the group as a whole "Welcome to battle school, for the next several months you will all be hearing some words that are new to you so I will explain them now; Launchies are all new boys... er... kids... who have just arrived at the battle school, because you just launched up here you see. You'll be called launchies until you're all put into armies in a year or two. An army is a group of students who together play a game called the Battle Room that you will learn much more about as you stay here." He paused for a moment as if trying to remember something "Oh and finally my name is Ben, and I'm your mom." A bunch of the boys snorted and giggled "Ya go ahead and laugh, I laughed too, but just remember that means I'm the one in charge of you all, you do good and I look good, you do something wrong and I am going to hear about it." He looked menacingly at some of the taller boys. "Now then your Groups colors are Red Blue Red. Can everyone remember that?" Most of the children nodded. "Good then, your color will light up a path for where you are supposed to go, and if you get lost just tell someone your color and they will light up a path for you, or if you get in trouble you can tell them that your mum's name is John." A few of the boys laughed getting the joke. "So launchies what is your color?"

"Red Blue Red" They all chanted in unison.

"And whats your mum's name?" the all shouted 'Ben' except a few who said John which caused much of the group to start giggling again. "Well, we got some cannon fodder in this group by the sound of it" Ben grinned "Now then normally at this point you would vote on your leader but the teachers have already assigned someone to be your leader. Is Artemis Fowl here?" Artemis' Stomach sank, why would they pick him to be the leader? It didn't make any sense. He confidently took a step forward. "There you are, Artemis you have been assigned as group leader, your bunk is the bottom one by the door, the rest of you can pick whichever bunk you want.

"Why is he the leader?" One of the children wanted to know.

Ben shrugged "Dunno, maybe he is the only one here who has any brains, or maybe the teachers are grooming him for command. Either way you all are to listen to his orders to you."

Artemis went and sat on his new bed as the other children all chose their bunks and Ben went through with them all how to open their lockers and log onto their desks, it was all a haze to Artemis. Why would they make him the leader? Even now he could see some of the other kids glancing over at him, sizing him up. Some had contempt in their eyes, others curiosity. It just didn't make any sense.

"Is she sleeping in here too?" One of the boys broke Artemis out of his contemplation, pointing towards the girl in their group who was palming open her locker.

Ben looked towards the boy, then towards the girl, and back towards the boy. "Yup, using the same bathroom too, is there a problem soldier?" The boy opened his mouth to protest but Ben held up his hand to silence him, he then glanced around the room at all the boys. "Know this boys, here in battle school there is no such thing as gender, we are all just soldiers. No one is treated differently based upon gender, nationality, race, or even species." Ben grinned "And I can tell you that you will meet people who make you question their species." The boys were all silenced, Artemis stared at Ben for a moment. He reminded him of his father, but why? Ben was nothing like Artemis' father, what was it that reminded him of his father? Then it dawned on him, it was the authority by which he spoke, Ben spoke with authority that people recognized and obeyed, that's what reminded him of his father.

Ben left shortly after that, which left Artemis alone with the rest of the boys some of which quickly surrounded his bunk. Artemis glanced up from his desk for a second, four of them, One of them, who was slightly taller than the rest, stepped forward and grabbed onto the top bunk with one hand as he leaned forward, the leader. Artemis turned off his desk and turned to face the leader of this gang of children, The boy grinned as if he found something funny "So why are you the leader Whitey?" Artemis didn't say anything he just shrugged. "Maybe its cause your better than the rest of us? You think that Whitey? You think your better than me?" Artemis thought to himself that he probably was better than this boy but once again he said nothing, he did nothing just looked the boy in the eyes, daring him to do something.

"Leave him alone" A voice called out from the other side of the room, it was the girl, standing defiantly from her spot next to her bunk. Artemis wasn't sure what this girl was doing, did she have something in mind? Or was she just stupid?

"What are you gonna do about it Ball-less?" The boys friends chuckled and started chanting 'ball-less'.

The girl wasn't done yet though "Did it take you all day to come up with that one? I thought this was a school for geniuses, but i guess if all it has to offer is no-name half-wits like you I'll be running the place in a couple weeks."

Her target got very red in the face and was clearly thinking of all the things he could do to her. "Hey listen up, my name is Greg Finch, I ain't just some no-name half-wit, and if you weren't a girl I would cream you."

The girl just smiled "Don't you know up here I'm just a soldier, and who cares if your name is Greg? You trying to Prove that your just a regular old half-wit?" That put the boy over the edge, egged on by his peers he charged the girl. Artemis almost closed his eyes, Greg was at least six inches taller than the girl and probably 20 pounds heavier. The girl however just watched him come towards her, at the last second she brought her hand up and smacked his ear causing Greg to raise his hands to protect his head. At this point she brought her knee up into his crotch, Greg doubled over in pain. He was on his knees now, the girl calmly walked around him until she stood on one side of him. He looked up at her, but only for a moment as she knocked him flat on his back winding him. "Your size counts for nothing up here Greg. We are all soldiers here." She stood back up and looked over at the other three boys "Anyone else?" The boys said nothing and stood there waiting for her to step away before retrieving their friend and dragging him from the room to find the nurses office.

Artemis was impressed, he wasn't sure how he felt about the use of violence to deal with the situation, but he was definitely impressed with the skill, Butler would be proud had this girl been his student. "Hey Arms. Psst. Hey Kid." It took Artemis a moment to realize that this voice was talking to him, he glanced over towards the voice. It was the boy from the shuttle, the one that had been mouthing the words of the movie, he was sitting on the bottom bunk next to Artemis'. "Ya you Arms kid" He said waving Artemis towards himself.

"Artemis Fowl" was all Artemis could think to say, he realized he was losing his cool and that if he wasn't careful this would end up like back at the clinic with the questions. He lied down on his bed and went through a calming exercise, he was having trouble concentrating though, probably too much stress he decided. He did his best to block it out of his mind. There was a weight on his bed next to him, he opened his eyes and looked over. The boy was sitting next to him looking down at him "Something you need?" Artemis asked in a calm voice.

The boy frowned and looked off into space "No, I don't think so, but then again I don't got bullies breathing down my neck and little girls beating them up for me." Artemis glared at the boy, but he had nothing to say back and so remained silent. The boy caught his glare and held up his hands in defense "I don't mean to offend of course, just offer a little advice to a fellow genius."

"What advice would that be?" Artemis wasn't sure how he felt about this boy, was he on his side?

The boy leaned in close to Artemis and spoke in a hushed tone "Your supposed to be the leader of these boys, right? Now I don't know why they picked a scrawny little Gothic kid like you to be our leader, but you better start acting like a leader before these guys eat you for breakfast"

Artemis frowned "I don't think I know how to be a leader." he had given orders before, but that wasn't really leading, was it? "What do you do when your the leader?"

The boy smiled "I dunno, do I look like a leader to you? You got to figure out on your own how your going to lead these guys." He tapped his forehead "Your thinking about it so your on the right track. You just got to put that big brain of yours to work is all."

The boy got off Artemis' bed and sat back down on his own bed, Artemis sat up and called after him. "Hey, what's your name?"

The boy glanced back at Artemis and smiled "Name's Kurt Hawkins" Artemis smiled back, he wasn't completely sure, but did he just make a friend? Artemis had never really made any friends before, so he didn't know what it would be like to have one. Hawkins seemed like a good guy though, having him as a friend might be kinda nice.

End Chapter


	4. Chapter 4

I own no characters organizations, etc.

* * *

Chapter Four

He shows generous amounts of ambition in any task he sets his mind to and focuses well on assignments given to him. Has a slight social awkwardness that is quickly overcome when with friendly company. Very Polite. Emotionally sound and well balanced psychologically, however has poor physique and strains to perform physical exercise for extended periods.

It is suggested that he be therefore encouraged to better himself physically as to deal with potential threats in the future that he may undertake due to his military life.

Often spends good amounts of time with the other enlisted men and shows no fear in the presence of larger and more dangerous men...

-Extract from Lt. Aimes' report to Col. Graff

Artemis' lauchie group didn't have any classes the first day so most of the group went out exploring the Station looking like a bunch of meerkats on guard for a hostile. Artemis stayed in the room though, he was exploring his desk, no internet of course. Artemis knew that they wouldn't have access to the web though, what he was really checking on was the desktop security. He had always been a cautious person, another trait he had picked up from his father he realized. The desk had very little security he soon discovered as he hacked into the other computers in his group, he chuckled to himself as he thought of how he could use this system to his advantage. He then went ahead and set up some firewalls for his own computer.

Slowly other members of Artemis's launchie group dwindled back into the room, Artemis had occupied his time by playing a Fantasy game he found on his desk. He marveled at its complexity, he had never encountered a game that allowed him to interact so thoroughly with his environment. Eventually Hawkins came back into the room, Artemis wanted to talk to him, but didn't know what to say. He was still too socially awkward to really know how to interact, so he pretended to be busy on his desk. Hawkins however noticed the occasional glance that Artemis was giving him and took the initiative to message Artemis on their desks. "Have you given any thought to your leadership?' He wanted to know.

Artemis was strangely pleased that Hawkins had messaged him but did his best to hide it. Artemis typed back "Yes, I am not too sure how a group such as this can be led though. I thought back to the leaders I had studied during my education but for some reason I don't think Alexander, Khan, or even Hitler could handle this group of boys. Maybe Stalin." Hawkins laughed when he got the message and quickly typed his response.

"Stalin would kill them all because they were threats to his leadership"

"Good thing they aren't training us to be killers or anything up here then." Artemis responded, Hawkins didn't laugh this time when he read the message though. Was that not funny? Artemis wondered.

"That's not the type of leader you would want to be though." Artemis read the message a few times when it appeared on his screen. He didn't know how to respond to that, so after a moment he quietly switched his desk off and lied down on his bed. He silently realized that the reason the message had such an effect on him was because it was true, he didn't want to be that type of a leader. But what kind of leader should he be?

The room slowly grew more noisy as the excited voices of the children grew to a dull hum. This roused Artemis out of his line of thought as he turned his attention to the room. He quickly noticed that Greg Finch wasn't there though a few of the members of his group were lingering in the back of the room and occasionally casting glances towards the girl who had defeated their leader. The girl in question was on her desk apparently oblivious to the world. How am I supposed to lead these kids? Artemis asked himself for the 10th time in the past couple hours.

Artemis was the first to notice it when Ben walked into the room, and stood up turning towards Ben as he had seen some of the men do in the Barracks on earth when a superior walked in the room. After a moment many of the others also stood up turning towards Ben.

Ben waited for silence before he spoke "Glad to see your all getting along. It is now 1745 dinner starts at 1800, today I will escort you there and show you where to get your food and where to eat it." Ben looked towards Artemis "After today it will be your responsibility to remind everyone of such things, Artemis." Artemis nodded and Ben addressed the group again "Now please remember that after supper you do have free time, and I know that you may be tempted to take a nap, but I would strongly advise against it. Go to sleep at Lights out and your body will adjust to the time difference much more quickly. Any questions?" No one had any. "Good, I'll give you a few minutes to wrap up whatever your doing and then we will head down."

They all left shortly after to go to dinner, as they got into line for food however Jon pulled Hawkins aside saying he needed to talk to him. Artemis went ahead and got his food with the others, the cafeteria was larger than any Artemis had seen before, and along one wall was a giant scoreboard which Artemis thought was curious. As he was looking for a seat, a couple of the boys from Greg's group bumped into Artemis nearly causing him to spill his food. Artemis watched them all sit down together and decided he wouldn't eat with the rest of the group, sitting with them while they were still picking on him would make him appear subservient. Instead he picked an empty table to sit at, Artemis had only been sitting there a few minutes before a bigger boy came and sat down next to him. "Hey, you must be the bugger, right?" Artemis looked over towards the bigger boy apparently confused by this boys comments. "The bugger, ya know? the member of the group that no one else likes? My name is Mick, that was me too, nobody important, just kind of glided along. Still doing it too, I am almost old enough to be a commander but there is no way..."

Artemis cut Mick off mid sentence "Who do you think you are? Maybe I sit by myself because I don't like anyone else in my group, not because I'm a stupid piece of driftwood like you. Get the heck away from my table." Mick gaped at Artemis for a few moments before he stood up and walked away, no launchie had ever said something like that to him before! Artemis didn't look up to watch him leave, people like that annoyed him. Why would you leave your family and everything you knew on earth just to come up here and not even try to excel? _But why am I so upset?_ Artemis suddenly thought to himself that maybe Mick was right, and that's why it bothered him...

"So you can stand up for yourself" Artemis looked up, it was the girl from his launchie group. "Mind if I sit?"

"Seat's taken" Artemis said going back to his food

"Which one?" She said looking up and down the table.

"All of them" Artemis responded without looking up "I like my elbow room"

The girl laughed and sat down in the seat across from Artemis "I don't think your elbows are quite that big.' Artemis shrugged. He was still in a bad mood but was curious what she wanted, first beating up Greg Finch and now sitting with him at supper. Where did she learn to fight like that anyway? and what was she up to? "I don't think we have been introduced, my name is Iris Byrne"

"I don't recall asking" Artemis replied looking up at her, she obviously wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. "What do you want Iris?"

Iris shrugged as she poked at her food "Just figured us buggers should stick together" She winked at him "After all everyone already hates us."

Artemis frowned at her, so she though he was a bugger as well "Everyone hates you, I hate everyone else. There is a difference between us." Was she trying to be his friend? Artemis had never had a friend in his life and was already making two in one day. Soon people might even start laughing at his jokes he mused to himself.

Hawkins arrived then and sat down next to Artemis. "Making friends Fowl? Sorry it took me so long to get here, took me a minute to find you." No mention of what he talked to Ben about, Artemis decided not to pry.

"Kurt Hawkins this is Iris Byrne, she seems to think everyone hates me and came to offer her hand in friendship to poor lil me" To Artemis' surprise Hawkins laughed at his joke.

"She is right though, everyone totally hates you. So what are we going to do about it?" Hawkins asked elbowing Artemis in the side gently.

"We?" Artemis asked with his eyebrow raised.

"Ya, you got a problem with that? Your stuck with me buddy whether you like it or not. Now dig in and eat your chow, we got to fatten you up some."

Artemis grinned, he supposed if he was to have a friend Hawkins wasn't a bad candidate. After all he understood his humor. "What are you boys going on about?" Iris was sitting there staring across at the boys, they turned to her just remembering that she was there.

Hawkins gave her a grin. "We're talking about Arty's little problem with leading our group of endearing little boys"

Iris nodded "So what exactly is the problem?"

Hawkins lifted his hands up as if to say 'Oh my dear child' "Well for starters everyone hates him, then to back that up is the fact that he hates everyone else" Iris nodded "Also he has no idea what it means to be a leader."

"You guys do remember that I am right here?" Artemis said slightly peeved about the comments made and the twinge of guilt he felt when Hawkins called him 'Arty', his mother used to call him that...

"Of course we do" Hawkins grinned at him "Can't your friends talk about you?"

Artemis opened his mouth to say a witty remark but nothing came to mind so instead he said "I wouldn't know, never had any before."

Hawkins frowned at him "What? Friends?" Artemis nodded. Hawkins covered his eyes with his hand "Oh, Mother be praised. Well then think of us as your siblings then. You got one of those don't you?" Artemis didn't look at Hawkins "Your kidding right? No siblings? I couldn't imagine that, me I got twelve brothers and eight sisters."

"What?" Iris asked in disbelief "But the Laws say your only allowed two children. Where are you from?"

Hawkins smiled at her, leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "Brooklyn, we were a special case as I was raised in an orphanage. No such thing as thirds there you see. Although I wouldn't doubt that a few of them were thirds what with them being abandoned and what not."

"Your an Orphan Hawkins? I thought you were a military brat or something." Artemis cut in.

Hawkins' brow creased "No, Why would you think that?"

"Well back on the shuttle you had seen the movie before right? I mean you were mouthing the words and everything."

Hawkins shook his head "No I am just good at guessing what happens next is all. Some of the kids back at the orphanage used to call it my 'ESP', but it's not really like I know whats going to happen I can just guess really good"

"So you know what..." Artemis started but Hawkins was mouthing his words as he said them, Artemis stared at Hawkins for a second before they both started laughing.

As the laughter died down, Iris looked thoughtful. "What about you Artemis? Where are you from?"

Artemis had finished eating "Ireland"

Iris' eyes lit up "Really? So am I! I never would have guessed you were from Ireland. Transylvania maybe." She winked at him as her and Hawkins chuckled at the joke.

Artemis rolled his eyes at them, Stoker's writings were hardly his role model, and waited for them to stop. He realized they had gotten way off topic though and went back into it. "Authority, that's what I need. Authority is what makes a leader I have decided."

Hawkins nodded "And how are you going to go about getting that"

Artemis seemed distant in thought "I don't know yet. That was one lesson my father never really taught me." Artemis was going to continue but their conversation was interrupted as Ben suddenly appeared at Artemis' shoulder.

"Could I have a word Artemis?" Ben asked smiling down at their little group.

Artemis looked towards Kurt and Iris, and they smiled back. "We'll clear your tray" Kurt said with a nod. Artemis gave him a nod in return and got up to follow Ben out of the room.

Once they were alone in a classroom Ben got out a couple chairs and invited Artemis to take a seat. "So how are things going with the group Artemis?" Ben asked with a smile.

Artemis wondered what was the point of this question? Surely Ben already knew about the fight so did he just want to see what Artemis was doing about it? "A little disorganized I suppose" Artemis responded "As I am sure you know not everyone in the group is happy with my appointment as leader."

Ben nodded "That is to be expected, even if they had voted on it not everyone would be happy. So what do you think is the problem then?" Ben asked with that same reassuring smile.

Artemis shrugged "I guess that I am just not a very good leader" He wasn't sure what Ben was expecting from this little meeting.

Ben looked at Artemis pensively for a moment. "Artemis, on my time here at the station I have seen many different leaders, and each one had their own way of doing things. But it always reminds me of something my father told me before I came up here." He paused for a moment before continuing "My family are sheep handlers in New Zealand and he told me that there are only two types of leaders. Just like when it comes to handling sheep there are two types of handlers. The first type is the sheep herder; he walks behind the sheep moving them from field to field with his stick making sure none fall out of line. The sheep listen to him because they are afraid of his stick and to him each sheep is just another animal."

Ben paused again at this point and Artemis looked at him intently. What was he getting at? "The second type..." Ben started again "...is a shepherd. He walks in front of the sheep and they follow him without being compelled from behind. They follow him because they know that he will lead them to a good pasture, that he will protect them from danger, and that he will look for them if they get lost. To him the sheep are his friends, he has a name for each of them and calls them by that name." Ben looked at Artemis "Do you understand what I am saying?"

Artemis nodded "I think so. You are saying that I can either be a leader who obligates others to follow me or I can be a leader who inspires others to follow me."

Ben's smile widened "Exactly"

"But how would I inspire anyone to follow me?" Artemis wondered aloud.

Ben shrugged "I couldn't tell you, that's up to you. But I will tell you this, if you hate them they will hate you back. If you love them they will love you back."

"Like reciprocates like" Artemis said with a nod.

Ben stood up and motioned for Artemis to do the same. "Why don't you think about that, it's up to you how your going to lead, just make sure you do it well." Ben held the door open to Artemis with a smile.

"Thanks" Artemis said as he walked out the room. He had plenty to think about as he walked off to look for Kurt and Iris.

End Chapter

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Thanks for reading!

Are you subscribed to any stories where the author uploads once every couple months or so? I hate that! So I have been trying to upload a new chapter every week but I am going to be getting busy pretty soon so sorry if the uploads start coming slower!

This one came late because I decided to change a few details at the last minute and had to rewrite half the chapter.

If you have any questions or suggestions just send me a message and I will answer you all at the bottom of my next chapter!

sincerely,

TFM


	5. Chapter 5

I own no characters organizations, etc.

* * *

Chapter Five

"Are you sure it was a good idea to make him the leader of his launch group? He obviously doesn't know the first thing about dealing with subservient soldiers"

"He doesn't need to, he will earn respect and when he has that he won't have subservient soldiers."

"I don't think it actually works like that sir"

"Why so skeptical? It is a proven training method I will have you know"

"But you came up with it yourself"

"And I have proved that it works, now let me do my job or I will never get a commander for the fleet ready in time!"

"... You better pray this works"

"I leave the praying to you, I'm putting my trust in those boys"

It took Artemis several minutes to find his friends back in their room, Kurt was sitting on his bed talking to Iris who was perched on the far side of Artemis' bed, obviously waiting for him to get back. He raised his eyebrow at them as they grew silent once he entered the room. "With you sitting next to the door like that, someone may think your waiting for someone."

"All the other spots were taken" Iris replied as if it were a matter-of-fact.

Artemis glanced around the near barren room and nodded as if he agreed, "So I see... Where is everybody?" He asked somewhat serious.

Iris sighed "Straight to the point huh? We guessed that they are probably in the games room fooling around with the games like most of the other kids." She said rolling her eyes, which she was unusually good at Artemis noted. What was this game room she was talking about though? Did it have anything to do with the fantasy game on their desks? Artemis only raised his eyebrow to convey his lack of understanding. "You know... the-games-room..." Iris said it slow as if she were an adult talking to a child "Did you honestly do no exploring the whole time we have been here?" she asked after Artemis did not lower his eyebrow.

"No... that is why I followed Kurt to the Lunch room earlier. I spent my time on my desk; I like to make sure I am secure before I start learning our environment."

"Well I am not much for computers myself, I prefer the physical world. My dad's military so I grew up learning how to fight and being pumped full of testosterone with the marines" Holly winked at him.

Artemis began laughing and had to sit down on the other end of his bed "Wait your a military brat? Here I thought Hawkins was Military and it turns out the only girl in our group is Military? What am I going to do?"He asked dramatically "My only friends are an orphan and a fighter." Artemis' mind went back to the Marines he had bunked with back on earth, it was hard to imagine this small six-year old girl next to the giants he had seen then.

Holly grinned "I am going to go ahead and take that as a compliment fighting can be pretty useful. You know I could knock out a few more for you if you want." She pretended to box an invisible opponent.

Artemis shook his head "No, I'm afraid you can't do that again, I don't want to be considered the leader here because everyone doesn't want you to beat them up. That is just asking for trouble." Artemis admitted to himself that he probably couldn't handle that trouble if it ever came.

They all talked for a few more minutes and Artemis even though he was getting the hang of talking to children his age normally when some of the other children began to start coming back into the room cutting their conversation short. Iris went back to her bunk and took out her desk leaving Artemis alone with Kurt who also took out his desk and started exploring the various programs on it. It was about this time that Greg Finch walked into the room, alone Artemis noted; his friends had likely not stuck with him when they realized that even a girl could beat him up, granted a very special girl. Greg barely glanced around the room when his eyes landed on Iris, but he quickly glanced away when she looked up from her desk and met his eyes. Greg then turned to Artemis who was watching him intently, he held out a small slip of paper to Artemis. "I am supposed to give this to you I guess" Gregory said with obvious contempt.

Artemis took the paper, it had a couple sentences on it explaining that Greg had bruised one of his ribs and might have some difficulty breathing for a little while. "How are you feeling?" Artemis asked trying to sound concerned.

"I'm fine" Gregory sneered back at him as he turned and walked to the far side of the room where his bunk was located.

Well that went well. Artemis thought to himself, he supposed that he had probably sounded fake when he was trying to sound concerned, of course he only thought this because he was in fact faking it. But he really found it hard to care about someone who had clearly made himself his enemy, How were you supposed to love someone like that? Artemis glanced over at Kurt but he just pretended he hadn't seen anything so Artemis didn't bother trying to talk to him. Eventually everyone else came back as the warning before lights out sounded. It took Artemis a long time to fall asleep that night as he listened to several voices around the room silently sob or whisper their mom or dad's name. Artemis had no such problems, he had gotten any such sentiments out of his system back on earth and fell asleep long before Ben came by to check on them. Coincidentally the only ones in the room who did not need the comforting touch of Ben's hand that night was Artemis and his two friends.

The next few day seemed to go by in a blur for Artemis, the classes weren't that difficult for him as he had been tutored at this level for his entire life, however for the others in his launch group it was the first time they had been challenged by their schoolwork. Iris and Kurt showed Artemis around the station on some of their free time, the game room they told him about was on the outermost decks where the gravity was lessened. Artemis found the gravity combined with the curve of the floor and roof very disorienting though and only went there with Kurt and Iris.

He also did try to learn more about the rest of his launch group in the mean time, he had a hard time with it though. He couldn't understand why he had to try to get these boys to like him so badly though, it wasn't like he asked to be their leader. Who decided to make him their leader anyway? Did they really think he was that much smarter than the rest of his launch group, though they were probably right, making him the leader right off the bat just separated him from the rest of the group. Artemis tried talking to Ben about it one time, but Ben just acted like he didn't know what he was talking about and didn't remember their prior conversation. The message was clear 'It never happened', Artemis was on his own.

Well not completely on his own, Artemis grinned to himself as he watched Kurt destroying Iris at a game. It was a simple game where each player controlled 5 pieces each with a unique ability, and would try to destroy the opponents 5 pieces to win the game. Iris was too predictable though, she always preferred using the close-combat pieces and would get lured into Kurt's traps because of it. Artemis had played against them both a few times but when they realized he could beat them every time they refused to let him play any more, which suited Artemis fine, he learned more by watching than he did by playing. The game was wrapping up as Kurt had destroyed all but one of Iris' pieces, another two turns and it would be over and Iris knew it.

"Darn it" She cried in frustration as her last piece was taken "This is just not my game I think" She said sounding clearly exasperated.

"So you want to go again then?" Kurt replied with a grin playing across his face.

Iris unfortunately was far too competitive to actually reject a challenge, another part of her predictability. "Your on!" She grinned back as the lights of the game started flashing and making sounds. Iris had the first move this time so she quickly moved her piece, impatient as usual she only waited a moment before shouting at Kurt to hurry up "C'mon make your mo..." she stopped in mid sentence. Kurt was staring off into the game room, a serious look on his face. Artemis also noticing the look on Kurt's face turned to look where he was staring.

Not far from where they were Artemis spotted Gregory Finch, normally this by itself was no cause for alarm but Greg was not alone. Judging by their pale green jump suits they were launchies, judging by their size they probably would be put into armies soon, and judging by the way the look on Greg's face they were not his friends. Artemis could just barely hear Greg's voice as he confronted the two larger boy's "Just go away... What did I..." The older boys wore smirks on their faces and one of them gave Greg a little shove with a laugh at his obvious discomfort. Artemis only had to glance over at Kurt and Iris to know what they expected him to do, so without a word between them he turned and walked over towards the older boys with Iris and Kurt close on his heels.

Artemis coughed to get the older boys' attention when they were close enough "Is something wrong?" He asked them calmly as they turned to look at him, the taller of the boys was a red-head with freckles dancing across his nose and cheeks, the other was Asian and gave Artemis a scowl as he looked down at him.

"Not 'less you got a problem midget" the Asian spat at Artemis still scowling down his nose at him. "You know our friend here or something?"

"My name is Artemis Fowl, I am Greg's launch leader. Can I do something to help you two?" Artemis replied still calmly. He was hardly going to rise to the older boy's taunts.

"Fowl eh?" The red head jibed "Do they call you that for your smell or cause your the size of a hummingbird?" Both the older boys laughed at the joke.

Artemis leveled a look at them that suggested how low on the food chain he thought of them, the older boys however ignored him and looked over him to Kurt and Iris. When the Asian boy set his eyes on Iris he laughed again and pointing a finger at her turned to Gregory "This the girl that kicked your butt into orbit?" Greg looked down at his shoes and tried to avoid Artemis' gaze. "Haha she's puny! You got no balls or something kid?"

Artemis calmly waited for them to stop laughing before looking over at Iris "Iris, these boys seem to think themselves tough. Would you fix that please?" Iris grinned at him and took a step towards them in answer.

"Whoa you want to fight little sista?" The big red-head smirked "We ain't a couple little six year olds ya' know, why don't you just back off before you get hurt" He reached out to push her shoulder but his hand never made contact as Iris stepped out of the way while simultaneously grabbing his elbow, pulling, and putting a foot in front of his. This had a slightly enhanced effect due to the lessened gravity as the older boy sailed several feet before crashing into the gaming console that Kurt and Iris had been playing only moments before. Iris calmly then turned to the other boy whose eyes had widened into saucers.

"Freak!" he cursed taking a step away from Iris "You just threw him"

That's not how I saw it" Kurt grinned looking at Artemis.

"Me neither" Artemis agreed leveling another look at the boy "He just tripped, right Greg?"

Greg glanced between Artemis and the older boy. "Umm... ya" he agreed after a moment.

The Asian boy just looked between Greg and Artemis incredulously until Artemis tilted his head towards the red head who was trying to collect himself off the floor and staring venomously at them "I think your friend needs some help" The Asian seemed to agree cause in a moment and a few short words the boys both disappeared into the crowd. "We probably shouldn't stay around long enough for them to get reinforcements" Artemis remarked watching them disappear into the crowd. "Come'on Greg" he turned to the larger boy and started walking out of the room with Iris and Kurt on his heels, after a moment Greg followed.

It wasn't until they got a few floors down that Greg said anything "I didn't need your help you know" He muttered "I could have handled myself"

Artemis glanced back at him "I know, we didn't doubt you could handle yourself." Artemis turned back forwards to watch where he was walking "But we are a team, and we look out for each other." He glanced behind himself again "Understood?" Greg nodded but didn't say anything in return so they walked back to their room in silence.

End Chapter

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Sorry it took so long this time and the chapter isn't as good as normal but I kind of pieced it together in just the past couple of days so... Hope you enjoyed it!

TFM


	6. Chapter 6

I own no characters organizations, etc.

* * *

Chapter Six

"I think he handled that well don't you sir?"

"No, he is too dependent on his subordinates, he needs to learn how to do things himself and not depend on those around him to solve the problems for him."

"I thought the idea was for him to inspire others to follow him into battle."

"It is, but this isn't following. This is battling for him, I never expected him to make some powerful friends so quickly."

"Maybe you underestimated him? As a fleet commander others would be doing the battling for him as well."

"Yes but they need to have the confidence that he would do the same for them, and that kind of confidence can't be won like this. I just don't know how this will work out well for us."

"Well, we will just have to make him work now won't we? I thought you said we may not have any other options, has something come up?"

"You're a Wiley one you know that Anderson? I never say anything but you always guess at my secrets. As a matter of fact I just got the report for Andrew Wiggin, he has had his monitor on for a few months now so they are starting to include me."

"Is the boy already three years old? It seems like just the other day we were having the monitors removed from that terror of a brother he has and a few months later from his sister, though I suppose that was two years ago now. Is he promising then, Colonel?"

"Well it is too early to tell, but I have hopes for him. He seems as intelligent as his older siblings; I just watched a clip of his sister teaching him Arithmetic, but he is much more gentle than his older brother."

"So Artemis isn't the one then?"

"We will keep pushing him for now, he will be old enough to lead an Army by the time we would need him so when the time comes we'll play it by ear."

The confrontation with the older boys on behalf of Greg didn't go unnoticed among Artemis's group. Most of them didn't get friendlier with Artemis and his friends but they did drift back to Greg and he wasn't seen alone in the room anymore, after all Iris had beaten up a boy much older and larger than he. So just like that everything seemed forgiven at least where Greg was concerned, if anything the group only seemed to fear Iris more, and Artemis, their cold quiet leader, was guilty by association. Only Kurt seemed immune to the prejudice as he passed easily from group to group chatting with them all as if he belonged, Artemis often thought that Kurt would make a much better group leader than he did but Kurt had no ambition or desires to be the leader. Artemis however couldn't deny that he did desire the respect that he assumed a leader would have, he wondered if he got that attribute as some kind of family genetic code or if it was because he just simply didn't want to lose the status he already had? In the end it didn't really matter he decided, he would have leadership whether he wanted it or the teachers did.

These were the things that Artemis was thinking about as his group followed behind Ben through the metallic hallways of the battle school. Ben had come to the room only minutes before and ordered them all to change into the dark green suits in their lockers that he called 'flash suits'. It was the first time Artemis had put it on, though he had seen most of the older launchies wearing nothing else, and all the children older then that only would wear their specially team-colored jump suit in public. Artemis didn't think much of the suit when he first put it on, the joints seemed stiff like walking through water, it was only after he had been jogging behind Ben for a minute that he realized the special significance behind the stiffness. He only noticed it because normally he would start to feel the effect of the running very quickly, but here he was jogging down the hall and hardly noticing it. There was some kind of machinery in the suits that amplified his movements so that once he started he could run faster and use less energy than he would have been able to otherwise, he would search for it later but so far he had detected no metallic elements to the suit.

They paused for a minute in front of a wall as they waited for 'the rooms to change' Ben said, Artemis wasn't sure what he meant until suddenly the wall went blank and they were staring through a doorway into a large room. Ben gave them only a moment as he stepped forward and jumped through the doorway, he then appeared to float steadily to the other side of the room. It took a moment for Artemis to figure out what was happening, it was just like back on the space shuttle, his heart was really beating fast now and it wasn't from the jog. Instinctively he smiled back at Kurt and Iris "Lets go"

Without a moments hesitation the three of them barreled through the doorway followed by a few others, many of the other boys slowly creeped through the door and ended up floating with no real control once they left the floor. Meanwhile Artemis and several others were hurtling through the air towards a far wall, Artemis watched as Ben rolled off the wall and almost instantly went flying off in a new direction. As they neared the far wall Artemis attempted to imitate the movements he saw Ben do but ended up flying in a direction he didn't expect and at a much slower speed. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that Kurt hadn't fared any better and most of the boys had simply had crashed painfully into the wall, only Iris performed the motion perfectly and was stopping behind Ben on the far side of the room. Artemis reoriented himself and bounced off a wall, shooting himself towards Ben and Iris, when he arrived Ben pulled out something and, pushing a button, everyone in the room drifted towards him. Magnets perhaps? If it was it wasn't targeting him, which was a little confusing.

"Ok everyone, this is the battle room..." Ben started as if he didn't notice the few boys still talking, which seemed to work as all attention was focused on him. "Much of your time in the future will be, if not inside here, focused upon what goes on in this room." Ben went on to explain to everyone how armies worked and how when they all turned eight they would be sorted into armies to battle each other in this very room. He then explained to them all how to use their flash guns and flashed a few of the noisier boys as an example. "Now normally I am supposed to teach you more on how to move around in zero gravity but I have always been more of the jump-into-it kind of a guy so lets have a mock battle, everyone sort yourselves up into teams of six and we'll get started."

The sounds of excited voices quickly filled the room as the children began splitting up into groups of six, Artemis, Iris and Kurt naturally stuck close to each other. Artemis had only a moment to glance around at the other boys imagining who would join their team when he noticed Greg and his two friends approaching him slowly while gripping the handles on the wall. Once their eyes met Greg dropped his gaze as if embarrassed "Hey don't you think it would be a good idea if we teamed up?" He asked slowly looking up at Artemis as he did.

Artemis leveled his gaze at Greg for only a moment as he tried to analyze the other boy's intentions before coming up with a response. "'Ya, I do." He replied casually as if it were an obvious conclusion. After shaking the larger boys hand Artemis turned towards Iris and smiled at her when he noted the confusion written across her features.

As if by signal Kurt put his arms around the shoulders of Greg's friends and began going on about how "there was no way we could lose with them on our team" Artemis noted that while Kurt was making them feel like they were needed their was no question that this was Artemis' team. Not for the first time Artemis was thankful for his American friend's charismatic personality.

Once everyone had split up into the groups they all made their way over towards Ben who was using the object in his hand to move large objects around in the middle of the room. Ben gave each group a single headband in a bright color, either red, blue or yellow, Artemis received the yellow one. Ben then went on to explain that they would be playing capture the flag today using the headband as the flag and whoever wore the headband as the "flag bearer", and that to win a team simply had to take the headband off the head of the opposing team's flag bearer.

Since there were three teams red and blue went first while Artemis and his group sat out and watched the first match. The "playing field", as Ben had called it; was 25 large boxes called "stars" set out in a 5x5 grid in the center of the room. The teams started at opposite ends of the grid and after 5 minutes to plan their strategy, Ben gave the signal and the battle began.

It took a moment for the silence to break as 12 boys all seemed to start shouting at once. Artemis carefully studied the two teams as they battled, the red team's tactic seemed to be an all out assault on the blue flag bearer, which seemed to work initially until they were lured into a pincer attack by the blue team. After a ten minute battle it was as much luck as skill that red managed to flash the last few blue members and take the flag with only one player able to move. A victory for red team, though a small one.

Ben was the only one who got up and clapped for red's victory, he pressed something on his control and all the frozen boys on red team began cheering at their victory as they all unfroze. "Good work red team, please return to your side of the playing attempt blue team, retrieve your flag and come over here; next up will be yellow versus red." Turning to Artemis Ben pointed to the side of the playing field that blue had just been on "Take your team over there, you will have five minutes to plan out a strategy and then we will begin."

Artemis nodded his understanding and, along with his team, pushed off the wall and slowly floated over to the star Ben had signaled towards. Once there they formed a small circle "Ok, so what's the plan boss?" Kurt asked smiling towards Artemis.

Artemis looked around the circle only to see that all of the eyes were on him. So that was it? They would all listen to his decision then. "Well..." Artemis began "We know that the opposing team rushes into the battle very quickly and are slow to adapt to surprises. In the last round they focused completely on attacking the opposing flag bearer and if they hadn't been lucky would have lost when red closed in on them." Artemis paused as he took a deep breath "So here is my plan then..." Artemis then explained the idea he had come up with while he was watching the last battle, by the end of it most everyone was nodding in agreement and smiling.

"What if they have changed tactics though?" Iris asked

"They won't" Artemis responded coolly.

"How do you know?" One of the other boys asked looking confused.

"Because it has already worked once" Artemis replied with a vampire-like grin. Ben signaled that they only had a few more seconds before they began so everyone took their positions on the star, "Are you ready?" Artemis looked over at Kurt who was wearing the flag on his head.

"No problem" Kurt replied nonchalantly "Its a good plan"

"Go to the left so that they all can see you really well"

"Got it"

A few quiet moments passed broken only when Ben shouted "Begin!" Instantly Kurt launched himself up and to the left flying towards the roof of the room at a surprising speed, the bright yellow headband standing out on his otherwise green figure. Artemis and the others held still a few more moments, would the plan work? With a shout from the other end the spotted four figures launch off the stars to pursue Kurt into the far corner of the room.

"Haha, well look at that! They took the bait" Greg grinned ferociously at the figures flying in the distance. At this Artemis' team moved, it took only a few moments to freeze the last two blue members who had not given chase to Kurt and take their headband signalling the end of the game. In total the game had lasted less than a minute, the other four members of the blue team hadn't even gotten close enough to fire at Kurt when they had already lost the game.

"Good work yellow team using a decoy" Ben congratulated them on their victory before directing them back to their side and having red team take up the spot on the far star for the final match. Once again they were given five minutes to plan out a strategy so Artemis' group huddled up in their circle once again.

"I can't believe that worked so quickly" Kurt grinned at everyone "But we can't do it again, they will be expecting it this time."

"And that is our advantage" Artemis replied

"What do you mean?" Greg asked, a confused look on his face.

"You have a plan?" Iris asked eagerly

"Yes" Artemis nodded "And this time I am going to need everyone's help..." A few minutes later after everyone understood their part in the plan and was silently waiting for Ben to signal the start of the next match. Kurt was standing in the front with Greg immediately behind him, Greg's two friends were to either side of him holding on to Greg by his shoulder and his hips. Iris was standing behind Greg next to Artemis who was wearing the headband this time. "Everyone ready?" Artemis asked as Ben signaled it was almost time to begin.

"Ready!" Everyone chanted in unison

"Don't worry boss" Iris gave Artemis a little punch in the arm. "Everything will work out" Artemis gave her a little smile to reassure her, and himself. He found it exhilarating to be in these little mock battles, he had never really done anything like this before. Even just playing with other children his age had seemed an alien concept to him only a few weeks ago, and here he was battling them and getting nervous over the results. His face went calm as he cleared his mind and waited for the signal.

As soon as Ben shouted to begin Kurt rocketed from their star, downwards this time. From the shouts on the other team it was obvious that they noticed him. "... leave 'em! He's just a decoy! Doesn't even have the flag this time!"

"Now!" At Artemis' signal Iris curled up clutching Greg's back and Greg's Friends curled their bodies to send Greg flying forwards flying just over the star in front of them.

Artemis heard the shouts as Greg opened fire on the boys below him, but only a moment later Greg froze and the shouts from the other boys turned into taunts. Artemis drowned them out as he watched below them, for a shadow to pass by... There it was! A whistle signaled that Kurt was ready, almost indistinguishable from the taunts being shouted by the red team. "Fire!" Artemis shouted as he and the other two boys dived over the star in front of them. At the same instance Iris from her position on top of Greg also began firing down at the blue team, and Kurt, who had bounced off the ground and returned to the field behind the blue team, began firing from behind. In their confusion blue team pressed together unsure of whether to fire upwards at Iris who was safely hidden behind Greg's larger body or face Artemis who was bearing down on them from the front. The whole time being carved up by Kurt who they still hadn't realized was behind them.

It took only a moment for Artemis and the other two to finish mopping up the remaining team members and Artemis promptly took the blue headband himself signalling the end of the match. Ben clapped for their victory and a moment later the red team also began cheering their approval. Artemis couldn't help but smile as he felt a sense of accomplishment rise up in his chest, in a moment Iris and Kurt appeared at his sides patting him on the back and congratulating him.

After everyone had calmed down and Ben had thawed all of the suits, he had them all leave the battle room and stand in their groups in the hallway outside as he put everything away inside. Artemis noted that all the teams were standing a little closer together this time, some of them even shook Artemis' hand and smiled at him.

Ben spoke to them for only a minute or two pointing out all of their mistakes and explaining how he would teach them more complex moves the next day, but Artemis could tell he was pleased with them when he dismissed them all for lunch.

Chapter End

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Sorry it took so long for me to release this chapter everyone! I had lots on my plate recently and it didn't help that I actually ended up re-writing this chapter five or six times before releasing it...

But I promise to do better, and the next chapter will be coming out this next Saturday even if I have to stay up all night Friday to finish it.

One last thing; I know that when I mentioned the timing in which Peter ans Valentine had their monitors removed is not actually mentioned in the book, but if you read the book carefully you will see that I am right. It says that Peter had his removed at 5yrs old and Valentine at 3yrs old. When Ender had his removed he was six and he had been wearing it for 3yrs. Peter at this time was 10(Meaning Ender was actually already a year old when Peter had his removed [so they had requested Ender's birth when Peter was still 3 and Valentine hadn't even been tested yet?... yes]) We later find out that Valentine is 2yrs younger than Peter therefore when Peter was 5 and had his monitor removed valentine was 3 and also had her monitor removed! This sounded a little strange so i spaced it out by a few months...

I hope this little rant has helped you all understand how complicated it is to write this story without messing with what is actually written in the Ender's Game book!

Nos Vemos en una Semana! Chow!


	7. Chapter 7

I own no characters organizations, etc.

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Chapter Seven

"So what is the reason for this meeting Anderson?"

"Artemis Fowl, Sir."

"Fowl? I left him in your care months ago, I told you that I don't have time for failed experiments."

"But sir you did watch those tapes I gave you correct? Well those were just his first time in combat and he was coming up with strategies like that! In the last six months he has only continued to get better and better, every new strategy he comes up with is as brilliant as it is simple."

"And in how many of those strategies has he so much as froze another player? In how many has he been part of the game?"

"If the strategy is brilliant enough, he won't need to be in it will he?"

"Well what about this situation with the older launchies? They are still hurting from when the Byrne girl sent them flying, and are out for revenge right?"

"And here I thought you weren't paying attention."

"Don't get smart with me Anderson, I am always paying attention. But you have to agree the day will come when Artemis won't have his little bodyguard on hand. How will his strategy save him then?"

Artemis looked up from the fantasy game he was playing as laughter came from the bunk next to his, Kurt was laughing with a few of the other launchies presumably to some joke one of them had said. Their launch group had become close in the last few months, since the first time they practiced in the battle room everyone had quietly accepted Artemis' leadership and since then he had proved his leadership capabilities repeatedly. So what was this strange feeling in his stomach? Watching Kurt joke around with the other boys from their group mad him feel... jealous? no not jealous... he didn't want to trade places with Kurt. He felt... excluded. That was the feeling... while the group had gotten closer, Artemis wasn't part of the group, he was their pale, brilliant, but silent leader with the Vampire-like smile. The boys would never walk up to him and joke like they would with Kurt, or ask for help learning battle room movements like they did with Iris. Artemis could remember all of the boys by name, he knew what they were good at, what their weaknesses were, and what they could do if they were pushed, but that didn't make them his friends...

Artemis' chain of thought was interrupted when a sudden weight bumped into his shoulder gently as Iris sat down next to him. "What's with the sour look on your face Arty? You got indigestion?" She prodded playfully. She had recently started calling him 'Arty' like Kurt did, and Artemis was thankful that it hadn't spread to the rest of the group. 'Arty' was the pet name his mother had always used and it tended to catch him off guard.

Artemis paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before answering Iris "No I don't have indigestion, why are you asking?"

"Well we're friends right? Friends look out for each other." Iris smiled with an unusually girly giggle. Artemis silently stared at her, that was right, Artemis wasn't alone, Iris and Kurt were still his friends and that was more that he wanted wasn't it? When he first got to the battle school he didn't even want them as his friends and here he was wanting even more friends. The thought was so amusing to Artemis that he chuckled, catching Iris by surprise. "Huh? Whats funny about that?"

Artemis opened hi mouth to explain, but suddenly closed it as his eyes fell upon one of his launchies who had just walked in the door. It was a small Hispanic boy from Oaxaca named Bruno who normally stuck around Greg, his eyes were downcast causing his face to be shadowed. From Artemis' lower bunk he could still make out the bright red line where his lip had recently been split and the tell-tale purple on his cheekbone where a bruise had started to form. It had been going on for a several weeks now where Members of their group had started showing signs of being bullied, but it had never been so obvious before. Bruno was a proud person, so he probably fought back and got it worse in return.

Iris must have noticed Artemis' face suddenly go blank because she let out a small gasp as she turned and saw what he was looking at. "That's going too far" She whispered to Artemis "I mean how are they going to explain that? He fell down the stairs? Not exactly many stairs in this station neh?"

"Ya, we are going to have to get this to stop." Artemis was staring off into space "After all this is our problem, not their's" Artemis gestured to the rest of the group. Iris frowned to show she didn't understand what he meant. "You'll understand soon enough" He smiled and pulled out his desk again starting up the fantasy game. Iris didn't bother saying anything else, she knew he wanted to think, but that didn't mean she had to leave so she just sat there, the warmth of her back pressed up against Artemis' leg.

For the rest of the day Artemis didn't talk about what happened to Bruno, and Iris didn't ask. Bruno tried his best to hide his injuries but by the last meal everyone knew, the tension at the table occupied by his launch group nearly drove Artemis nuts. He felt like everyone was depending on him to do something about it, he was trying to keep everyone else calm by being calm himself but he really wasn't acting any different than he normally did. He worried that maybe they all just thought he didn't care about what was going on. But he did care, he was pretty sure he knew who was behind it too, none of the boys had spoken to him about it, but he could see on their faces as they would glance towards certain tables or grow quiet as someone walked by. It was the group that the boys from the game room belonged to, but even knowing this didn't help.

If Artemis went to the teachers he couldn't pin the blame on any one of them, but if he tried talking to the group as a whole he wouldn't be taken seriously, and he couldn't approach a random one because anyone other than the leader in the group wouldn't have the authority to stop the mistreatment anyway. He had to talk to their leader but just watching them didn't tell him who that was, maybe their leader didn't eat with them? Or maybe nobody else respected his authority? That would be bad, because then Artemis was unsure what would stop them.

Artemis had his questions answered the following day. It happened during free time, Iris and Kurt had gone up to the game room to play the five piece game that they normally did. Artemis normally went to watch, but he just didn't feel like it today. Iris was getting better at it but she still lost to Kurt seventy percent of the time. Instead Artemis decided to go watch another group practice in the battle room, the platform where you could watch the proceedings was normally vacant except for one or two older soldiers. Artemis assumed that the others were commanders who were scouting for potential recruits into their armies but he had never verified this, nobody every said anything to him while he watched and he never said anything to them.

Today when Artemis arrived no one else occupied the platform so Artemis chose a spot with a good view and leaned up against the bar. In the room there was an army using their free time to practice some maneuvers, it was rare to see an army practicing, normally they only practiced on scheduled times when no one else could watch. The army was practicing taking a star going at it in waves, it was effective, but too costly in Artemis' opinion; losing eight men to take a star held by three would weaken your army too much.

Musing about this Artemis didn't even notice the footsteps behind him until he could practically feel their body warmth. The boy leaned on the rail next to Artemis, his body turned towards Artemis and a fiendish grin on his face. "Hard to find you alone, little one." The boy's grin widened and some other people behind Artemis chuckled.

Artemis turned to face the boy and out of the corner of his eye he surveyed the rest of the room, there were just two others guarding the door, the other two Artemis recognized immediately from the game room. "I've been wondering when you would come." Artemis replied keeping his face straight "Been almost six months since I last met your boys."

This answer only seemed to please the other boy as he waved his hand to the other two "Who? Them? That's all in the past, what happened between you and them isn't my problem."

"Then why have you been bothering my group?" Artemis chose his words carefully, the other boy was trying to catch him off guard and was succeeding. "Wasn't this about revenge?"

"When two dogs get in a fight, do the masters shoot each other?" The boy asked sarcastically "I don't care about your little puppies, torturing them was just the easiest way to get you to take my request seriously."

"And what is your request?"

"Leave." The boy said with gusto "Get yourself iced and go home, it really isn't that uncommon for a launchie to break down and decide they can't live up here any longer."

Artemis had never even thought about going home, after six months on the battle station he didn't even know that he still had a home. "Why me?"

The other boy grinned as he mistook Artemis' words for a plea "Because you bother me." He paused before continuing "never trying to just fit in, always walking around like your better than everyone else, and having your launch group treat you like some kind of king." The boy shifted his stance so that he had his back front turned towards the door. "It annoys me just watching you, so I don't want to watch you any more." Artemis turned back to the battle room and remained silent. The boy sighed and pushed off the rail "Think it over" He began walking away "But don't take too long or one of your puppies might get seriously hurt."

Artemis listened to the boys chuckle as they walked away. Soon he was alone again, the army down below had moved on to new things but Artemis wasn't paying attention anymore, he had other things on his mind.

Chapter End

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Sorry everyone, I know this chapter isn't nearly as long as normal but that's just how it is. The next chapter will be significantly longer but I won't have time to write it this week so it will be published in two weeks instead of one.

In case you have forgotten the two boys from the game room that are mentioned here are the asian and the red-head that Iris umm... helped fly... from back in chapter 5.

Also before I go I was wondering what you all do for inspiration when writing your stories? I read other fanfics but have decided that is bad because I always end up thinking "Oh, this person is such a better writer than me..." and then I get really into their story and never end up writing anything down... D:

So send me a PM if you have any suggestions for me or for the story, have a good two weeks!


	8. Chapter 7 and a half

I own no characters organizations, etc.

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Artemis watched the army doing it's practice skirmishes until the end of free time, it gave him time to analyze what he had heard, the boy had clearly been trying to get a reaction from him; calling his group 'puppies' and his aggressive way of speaking. Artemis took some silent pleasure knowing that the boy had probably left frustrated by Artemis' calm composure when he had likely fantasized about more grim reactions.

Standing there also more importantly gave Artemis enough time to wipe any emotion from his face, he had toyed with the idea of telling Kurt and Holly about the conversation with the older boy, but in the end he knew it would only bring unnecessary stress on the group if it were found out that the bullying would only stop if Artemis left. In fact, his desire to confess to his two friends was entirely selfish of Artemis, he simply did not want to shoulder the burden alone. Artemis wondered what would happen if Gregory Finch, with whom he had just recently created a delicate alliance, would react if he learned of this conversation. Artemis had the image of being thrown out into space head-first, flash through his head. Artemis smiled, the older boy was wrong, he may be the group leader, but his group certainly did not treat him like a king!

Which only brought up more unanswered questions to Artemis' mind; should he leave the battle station? He certainly had no desires to leave and return to his family a failure, but he did feel a twinge of... was it guilt?.. dissatisfaction he decided, over the pain his group would suffer if he stayed. He briefly considered going to the teachers for help but dismissed the notion after some consideration. They knew, they had to know, and yet they did nothing meaning that they would have to deal with this on their own. It made a weird sort of sense really, they were being trained for war after all, and on the battlefield there would be no teachers, no rules. For all Artemis knew this was a common occurrence, the older launchies picking off the younger ones that glanced at them the wrong way. Artemis wondered if the marines down on earth treated their new recruits this way too, they had been kind to him, but he was six, hardly a new recruit and more like a novelty really.

Artemis suddenly noticed he was no longer in the Observation room, his feet had started moving on their own as he was pondering his situation. He recognized where he was as being close to the cafeteria where they ate, so he went in and sat down in the near-empty room. Eventually his eyes fell on the large Screen that was the center of the room, it was positioned so that you would look at it at least once every time you entered the room. Artemis allowed his eyes to scan the board, tracing the names of the best soldiers in every category, Artemis didn't recognize any of them, but he wouldn't being a launchie. His name wouldn't go up there for a few more years if at all, and Artemis found he didn't really care if it ever went up. Did that mean he wasn't fit for the competition of Battle School? No, He just didn't care for recognition... Unless it was from his father.

Artemis shook his head and stood up, his thoughts were just going in circles, like a bug that buzzes by your ear and comes back no matter how many times you swat at it. With a sigh of defeat Artemis went to look for His group, hoping that maybe he might find distraction along with them.

It didn't take long to find them, they were where he expected them to be, up in the games room. Artemis hadn't come to the games room for a few months, the lessened gravity was still a little disorienting, but it wasn't as bad as he had remembered. He wondered if the training in "nullo" or no gravity had anything to do with it. The entire group was together as normal, but it still only took a moment for Artemis to pick out Iris and Kurt from the small crowd. Iris was playing someone in that favorite game of hers, she was winning too by the looks of it. Kurt was spectating a game that the older children played, something fancy with ships and lines of light drawn in the air.

Artemis made his way through the crowd and began approaching his group when a member of the group spotted him and waved him down shouting to the rest "Oh look! Our fearless leader decided to visit us today!" Artemis ignored the mock cheer that arose from the assembled dozen or so boys and studied the face of the boy who had called him out. He was an American boy named James Pinual, there was nothing particular that Artemis remembered about him, he was smart but so was everyone else, he did alright in the battle room but nothing spectacular. James had never really been close to any of the boys in their group and as Artemis studied his grinning face, he detected no malice from the boy and so dismissed his outburst quickly.

It didn't take Artemis long to establish himself among his friends, as he watched his team mates play various games. Doing so, Artemis found the distraction he was looking as he studied his team mates and learned about them by what and how they played in the game room. Bruno for instance; played almost exclusively single player games and rarely would choose to be confrontational in them. Gregory was more inclined to play games that did not have many complicated pieces and would master the use of a few pieces to try and win. James, Artemis learned, was very competitive in the games he played, and was also very good. If given a few moments to study his opponents pieces he almost always came up with a near perfect counter strategy.

After watching for a few minutes, it occurred to Artemis that James didn't play very often and when he did it was almost never with members of his group. Artemis assumed this was because the members of the group already knew better than to go against him. This was confirmed by Kurt when he asked him about it "Ya, I play him every now and then to practice, and while I can guess what he is going to do accurately, I can't figure out a way to prevent it." Artemis and Kurt watched as James finished off his opponent's last piece. "Why don't you give him a try Artemis?" Kurt suggested nudging Artemis with his elbow. Artemis didn't think it was a good idea, but Iris soon got into it as well and Artemis ended up being herded into the seat across from James.

Because Artemis wasn't familiar with the game, James took a few minutes to explain the game mechanics to Artemis. It was basically a chess-like version of the battle room, where the holo-board was 10x10x10 giving a total of 1000 spaces where pieces could occupy. Each player was then given 40 identical pieces to surround their "goal" which took up the four spaces in the center of the side closest to them. The players would then take turns moving their pieces around the board and attacking each other with the goal to fill the four squares of your opponents goal with four of your own pieces while preventing the opponent from doing the same to you.

In the beginning of the game it was simply a competition of attrition as they both lost pieces quickly in their struggle to gain the upper hand. The game soon slowed down to the point of taking a few minutes between each move and Artemis began understanding what Kurt had meant by not knowing how to prevent James' moves, so Artemis didn't try to, every turn Artemis would change his strategy and James would adapt to counter it. This in itself proved to be very effective as Artemis slowly gained an upper hand when James' pieces began to be spread too thin. James seemingly realizing this, began suicide missions into Artemis' territory, until each player was left with only three pieces each. A tie.

There was a collective sigh released from the audience that Artemis only now realized they had watching them. From the murmurs in the crowd Artemis could tell that most of the group were disappointed that Artemis hadn't won, but they didn't really understand. Artemis glanced towards James who still had his face down turned studying the holo-board; Artemis had won, he had forced James to use a move that guaranteed neither person would win. If the game had continued how it had before Artemis would have been victorious.

Kurt approached Artemis with a silly grin across his face and gave Artemis a hand up before clapping his hand on his shoulder in congratulation. He at least had been able to keep up with what had happened in the game. The rest of the room had begun emptying out as free time was almost over, Artemis and Kurt joined Iris who was impatiently waiting for them by the door before going to class. As Artemis walked to class with his friends and team-mates surrounding him, his mind only once wandered to his problems with the older boys. It was a rest he would find rare in the coming weeks.

As promised the bullying from the older boys did not go away, but it didn't increase either which was a silent blessing on Artemis' mind. Only Artemis himself seemed immune to the bullying as even Iris would mention having her computer hacked into or lunch tray being knocked out of her hands, nothing too direct of course, she was too intimidating for that. Artemis would try to help where he could setting up computer security for his teammates and whatnot, but it did little to ease the guilt that he felt. He was so preoccupied by it that even his studies started to suffer as he fell behind in some of the more challenging classes; star maps and whatnot. On various occasions his teachers had even asked him to stay extra time to recover some material or talk about his performance on a test. It was after one of these "talks" that Greg approached him alone in the hallway.

He was waiting outside the classroom leaning against a wall, which he quickly shoved off of to stand up straight when Artemis appeared. "A word sir" Was all he said.

Artemis studied his face but saw no hint of emotion in his features. That in itself was a solid clue when it came to Greg Finch, who normally had his mind written across his face. Combined with the semi-official use of the term 'sir' which Artemis had never required from his launchie group, made Artemis fairly certain that he knew what this conversation would be about. "Of, course" Artemis replied casually turning down a corridor "Walk with me"

Greg silently obeyed as he began walking next to Artemis down the long corridor that curved around the ship. He remained silent for a few moments, which felt like minutes to Artemis, as he gathered his words together. "I was... uhh... asked to deliver a message to you..." He paused a moment to glance over at Artemis who wore no expression. "Some of the older launchies say that you should make up your mind faster" Greg was staring at Artemis now, and his face seemed shocked as Artemis only nodded in response. Because of his shock or perhaps because he was tired of walking Greg suddenly stopped "What does he mean by that?"

Artemis stopped as well a few steps away from Greg, he didn't turn to face him though, he didn't want to be watching Greg's face right now. "I think you already know" Artemis felt like a rubber band was being stretched inside his chest, he was hoping that this conversation would happen with Kurt or Iris, but not with Greg. Of course he knew that it would be impossible to keep everything a secret but he had expected to at least make some plan to solve the problem before anything else happened. With Kurt or Iris that would be enough, but with Greg... he didn't know what to expect from the large boy with whom his alliance was shaky at best.

Artemis heard a sigh come from behind him and he pictured Greg looking down at the floor "Yeah, we guessed it was something like that." Artemis turned to look at Greg, his voice sounded sad as if he had just heard some really bad news. He was leaning against the wall with his arms folded and his brow furrowed. "Me 'n Kurt have been talking and we figured that there must be a reason why they weren't targeting you, after all you are the smallest member of our group neh?" Artemis was surprised by the information, he hadn't known that Greg and Kurt were so close, it made sense though, Kurt was close to everyone. "I figured that the only reason for that was that they were actually targeting you through us" Greg chuckled a strange knowing laugh. Finally he looked up at Artemis, his face quite calm "So what is it they want then?"

Moment of truth then; "They want to me to ice myself" Artemis prepared for the response that was sure to follow, the push to do as they say, the rejection.

It didn't come, Greg looked back down at the floor and furrowed his brow again, Artemis realized that he must furrow his brow like that when he was trying to concentrate. Finally after several moments of silence Greg spoke "Well we can't have that" Artemis' shock must have spread to his face, because Greg laughed and in a few strides put his arm around Artemis' shoulders "What? You didn't expect us to push you off into space did you? Wasn't it you who said 'we are a team'?" Artemis remembered the statement from several months past but he hadn't expected Greg to. "So what are you going to do?"

Artemis shrugged, the weight of Greg's arm across his shoulders was strangely comfortable. "To be honest I have been wondering if I shouldn't just leave, there isn't much I can do here anyway."

Greg's face went serious and his brow furrowed again as he seemed to seriously consider the option. "Do you know why I didn't like you when we first got here?" He said suddenly, Artemis hadn't really thought much about it. "Back home... on earth, I mean. I'm a third, got two older brothers both as brilliant as all heck, then the government comes and tells my parents to have me as well. Being a third isn't a whole lot of fun I think, but no matter how much people at school bugged me about it, my brothers were always worse, ya'know?" Greg smiled at Artemis as if it was funny "O'course they were clever about it, they would do things like bang on the walls at night so I couldn't sleep, or force me to do things I didn't want to right in front of everybody. So when I got here I figured it was a new life ya'know? Where everyone was like me, and no one was better than me neither." Greg let out a sigh "Then you came along, and I know it's silly, but I saw you as being just like my brothers. But it was different this time because I was the bigger one so..." He let that sentence just die off but Artemis understood what he meant.

"But then you stood up for me and I realized that just because you're my leader, doesn't mean you're my enemy." Greg had a huge smile on his face as he made this last revelation "In hindsight I don't really think I would want to be the leader, I wouldn't even know what to do." This time it was Artemis' turn to laugh.

"You think I do?"

Greg shrugged in response. "You got no complaints here" A silence past between them as a new understanding passed between them, sometimes Artemis forgot that they were all just kids. Though he doubted regular kids down on earth talked about things like this. "So... what are you going to do?" Greg finally ventured. Artemis still didn't know so he just shrugged in response, which incited another chuckle from Greg. "Well why don't we go talk to Kurt and everyone? I think they will all be a little more understanding than you give them credit." Greg turned Artemis towards their room and began walking back with him.

"I guess miracles happen" Artemis grinned his vampiric smile, after all one had just happened right? They made their way back towards the room their group shared, but didn't manage to make it all the way back when They spotted Kurt running towards them a serious look on his face and a piece of paper in his hand. He wasn't out of breath when he got there which was a credit to the good shape he was in. No words were exchanged between them as he silently handed the small paper to Artemis.

The paper had Artemis' name across the top and a single line written on it. Report to my office immediately. -Col Graff

Chapter End

* * *

Hey everyone! Long time no see... let's not talk about that.

So here is the new chapter. It actually has been done for almost two months so... sorry. However the next chapter WILL be up within the next two weeks. so stay tuned!


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